Some badly scarred, others blinded, all still shaken, a parade of survivors on Wednesday relived the horror of the 1998 bombing that devastated the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The stories of death and heroism provided the most gut-wrenching testimony so far at the trial of four alleged followers of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden charged with conspiring to attack two U.S. embassies in Africa.

A Pakistani official here said Sunday that an "Arab national" has confessed to being involved in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in this capital and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and has been turned over to Kenyan authorities. Fearing a possible violent public reaction against Pakistan's cooperation with the U.S. in the case, Americans gathered at the embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Sunday to await instructions about a possible evacuation.

Jurors in the U.S. embassy bombings trial viewed burned-out, crumpled chunks of a truck that hauled a bomb into the embassy compound in Kenya. Pieces of the Toyota were found after two embassies were bombed on Aug. 7, 1998. The attacks, in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people. If convicted, Wadih El-Hage, 40, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, could face life in prison while Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, could face the death penalty.

The former U.S. ambassador to Kenya described to a jury Thursday how a procession of survivors--many of them bleeding, praying and singing hymns--reached safety after the bombing of the American Embassy that killed hundreds in that African nation. It was the most dramatic moment so far at the trial of four followers of Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden who are charged with bombing U.S.

August 28, 1998 | STANLEY MEISLER and JOHN J. GOLDMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Flanked by top Clinton administration officials, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh announced Thursday that U.S. agents had brought a confessed terrorist and would-be suicide bomber to New York and charged him with the murders of the 12 Americans who died in the attack three weeks ago on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. A second suspect in the alleged conspiracy was reportedly in American hands as well, with an official statement about his status expected imminently.

For almost a decade, the United States considered him a virtual ally. Fellow Saudis viewed him as a philanthropist. To the West, he was a noble warrior against East Bloc communism. And Islamic governments praised him as a hero against infidel aggression. But today, governments on four continents view Osama bin Laden, a millionaire Saudi dissident who gained fame in the 1980s for helping expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan, as the greatest individual threat to their security interests worldwide.

In the wake of any apparent terrorist attack, it's always the first question asked: "Who did it?" But amid the blood and debris of Friday's U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, there were depressingly few clues that might point to a culprit. Experts on East Africa came up empty in their initial search for possible suspects or motives within the region.

Before a bomb devastated the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, a line of Kenyans and Americans seeking aid would form outside the building every morning. Some hoped for visas. Others had been robbed. Each one faced some dilemma. It was Julian Bartley's job to make sure that not a soul was left by the end of the day. Other senior embassy staffers focused their attention on treaties, contracts or policies. As consul general, Bartley was the embassy's outreach officer for everyday expatriates and locals.